{"id":4461,"date":"2024-01-18T23:55:40","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T23:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/?p=4461"},"modified":"2024-01-18T23:57:30","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T23:57:30","slug":"welcoming-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/reflections\/welcoming-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcoming refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Radical hospitality and care for foreigners are loud, frequent commands throughout scripture.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Like many congregations, Union Center Church of the Brethren emerged from the pandemic a little puzzled about what would come next. However, deacon co-chair Rodney Bontrager encouraged study of the book <em>The Post-Quarantine Church<\/em> by Thom S. Rainer. As a result of this study, it was decided to begin a new focus on prayer life and sponsoring refugees.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo welcome others was a way to honor those who welcomed our ancestors and a way to honor God, who welcomes all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/Welcoming-refugees-Messenger-2024-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">accounts about welcoming refugees <\/a>from Union Center, Mechanicsburg, and Beacon Heights Church of the Brethren. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Listen to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/playlists\/playlist-refugees\/\">playlist of music by and about refugees<\/a> and former refugees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Radical hospitality and care for foreigners are loud, frequent commands throughout scripture.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[562,561,35,563],"class_list":["post-4461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflections","tag-beacon-heights-church-of-the-brethren","tag-cws","tag-refugees","tag-union-center-church-of-the-brethren"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4461"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4470,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4461\/revisions\/4470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}